“I’ll just go tomorrow”: Exploring Post-secondary students with obsessive-compulsive disorder: An interpretative phenomenological approach linking persistence and quality of life insights ​

Kraft, E. (University of Ottawa)

​A graduate student’s academic journey often includes a number of stresses and demands, from publishing papers to applying for scholarship grants, allowing for the importance of maintaining a physically active lifestyle to become less of a priority. Graduate students often view physical activity as more of a burden than a healthy choice, causing this shift in the priority that physical activity holds in a fast-paced lifestyle (Longfield, Romas & Irwin, 2006). This paper examines the phenomenon of the decline in graduate students’ motivation to participate in physical activities and discusses the experience of one student’s journey to reclaiming a physically active lifestyle. Through the use of an individual case study, this qualitative research explores the positive effects that emerge from a graduate student’s engagement in consistent physical activity, while balancing the demands of graduate school. The results of this study indicate improved sleeping patterns and lower levels of anxiety when consistent physical activity was placed into a regular routine. Forms of physical activity that were deemed the most enjoyable activities to participate in, involved variation as well as social engagement. Although physical activity may not seem like a priority to graduate students, the results of this study indicate the benefits that consistent physical activity has on the graduatestudent experience.

Post-secondary students with obsessive-compulsive disorder: An interpretative phenomenological approach linking persistence and quality of life insights​

Widdifield, C.​​ The purpose of this qualitative, exploratory study was to develop a deeper understanding of educational and other social experiences and relationships of post-secondary students who were clinically diagnosed with primary obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The researcher also investigated their strengths, weaknesses, coping strategies, and quality of life through mental and physical health. The majority of people with OCD have obsessions and compulsions that last greater than an hour each day or severely impact daily life. Obsessions are irritating feelings or mental pictures that individuals try to block or mitigate with irrational physical or mental compulsions, often appearing as excessive hand washing in reaction to acontamination obsession. Participants comprised seven university students who completed three self-report questionnaires and two semi-structured interviews with the researcher. Five participants submitted self-report journals. These data were examinedusing interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The present study advanced previous research as it documented extensive lifelong characteristics, experiences, and relationships from these students. It yielded salient findings related to their OCD functional impairment and quality of life. Further, it showed that as students, their intellectual integration seemed to play a greater role in academic persistence than didtheir social integration. In addition, participants’ university policy and practice recommendations were congruent with asimilar study from about a decade ago indicating that perhaps few or none of the past recommendations were implemented for the benefit of such students. Present recommendations should be implemented accordingly.

​​Developing knowledge on students' experiences of a challenging course through photographs​

​The balance between lessons prepared to challenge the talented students and students who find the course difficult is arecurrent dilemma in the Danish nurse education. The gap between these two kinds of students is particularly dominant related to a theoretical course in the fifth semester. A few students look forward to this course while the majority has in advance deemed the course difficult and boring. To provide knowledge as to students’ experiences of this challenging course the study is conducted within a phenomenological approach. Data were generated in two steps. Firstly: Nursing students were invited to take photos of NO-situations considered as boring, difficult, annoying, confusing and YES-situations considered as cool, awesome, interesting, exciting, encouraging orthe like. Secondly: The students presented their photos at a workshop and told about the background of the photo. In reflectingteams, the fellow students reflected on the stories and discussed whether they recognised the situations related to their own experiences. The stories, reflections and discussions were audiotaped and transcribed. Three themes appear from the phenomenological analysis. First: It is hard to break the code characterised by a feeling of insecurity facing unknown words and concepts far from what they normally associate with nursing. Second: When the students succeeded breaking the code characterised by the feeling of joy and relief when they grasp the meaning and understand the links to nursing practice. Third: Sources of irritation and frustration characterised by different kinds of disturbances, lack ofmutual respect and practical challenges.With this paper, we especially want to discuss reflections on photographs as a method to stimulate students to express their educational experiences in our efforts to generate data.

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